No gamer reads the manual or follows a tutorial, so why bother making one? Makes sense, but the first five minutes of The King Is Watching demo was a bit… what? A rogue-like kingdom builder, it’s a little Mego-Lo-Mania, a little Thronefall, and very much crack.
Diving in feet first and without a manual or press material to look at, The King Is Watching seems overly difficult and restrictive unnecessarily. As a recovering perfectionist, it took three premature exits before losing to realise it’s a rogue-like, and that through each attempt, one can grow stronger by unlocking goodies from a skill-tree. Sometimes, that gameplay loop is to unlock better stuff, but four straight hours into the demo, it was evident the overall gameplay was the bait.
Currently in the early days of development, as there are placeholders, but not much else except a tutorial and the core game, the aim is to build a community of subjects, all the while pushing back attackers with a shitty stick. Base-building stretches over sixteen tiles, without any scope for building outside the walls, so it’s important to manage placement and get used to the vision mechanic.
Structures only function when you ‘look at them’, in a Sauron eye-in-the-sky manner. This starts with being able to hover over three tiles, and with investment, the vision area increases as if if you aren’t looking at a structure, it won’t operate. There are three basic materials to begin with: water, wheat and lumber. As the game progresses through completing waves or researching, new structures appear that allow for ore-building, metals, clay, and even those that produce two types of materials, at the sacrifice of a slower production time.
The King Is Watching isn’t a tower defence game, yet there are elements of it on the horizon with a tesla tower that targets invaders. It will be your melee and ranged soldiers doing all the work, increasing their numbers, strength and morale for maximum efficiency. Additional summons, such as demons, can be used, too, but the real draw is the spells. These can either be researched by gazing at a specific structure or beating waves and unlocking new ones.
Spells are typically attack ones that include fire, lightning and tornadoes, but also healing auras and buffs to earn materials. Another interesting mechanic in The King Is Watching is the ability to choose three waves at a time from ‘easy’ through to elite enemies – the pay-off being high risks equals high rewards. Said rewards, besides spells, include structure upgrades and buffs – namely, an increase in production.
Although you can choose the easier waves, the experience is far from that as the times between each wave can be quite swift. If the enemies kill your active soldiers, they’ll start attacking the castle walls. When these are destroyed, it’s game over, invest in the skill tree and do it again. The walls can be repaired, but unlocking the right structure can be a bit hit-and-miss due to the rogue-like nature.
The bottom line is this: The King Is Watching, from Hypnohead and tinyBuild, is a demo, meaning it’s free to play. If rogue-likes, city builders, and tower defence games are your thing, then definitely give this a look. Just don’t be surprised to invest a fair amount of time into it before being able to reap the rewards of better units, structures, and bragging rights.
